Hidden hinge structure



p i 2, 1963 A. J. VAN NOQRD, 3,083,403

HIDDEN HINGE STRUCTURE Filed April 23, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN VENTOR.

April 1963 A. J. VAN NOORD 3,083,403

HIDDEN HINGE STRUCTURE." Filed April 23, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

wza/ %A /%M0 M, M r7 5 United States Patent Ofiice 3,083,403 Patented Apr. 2, 1963 The present invention relates to double pivot hinges and more particularly to a hinge structure adaptable to concealment in the door of a cabinet or the like where it is desirable for the hinge to be hidden when the door is closed and which permits the hinged face of the door to swing first outwardly from the door facing and then to accomplish pivotal action so that the door edges does not extend beyond the planar extension of the side of the cabinet served. The hinge of the present invention is also adjustable providing a preset stop limit which is easily adjustable to limit the extent of door swing as desired.

Still more particularly the present invention relates to the substantially complete concealment of appliance door hinges in a complete in-line set.

Double pivot hinges are relatively well known in the art and many camming arrangements as between fixed and movable hinge elements are well known. Most of such devices have been developed for furniture application where it was desirable to devise sturdy concealed hinges with selected stops controlling the extent of outward pivoting. Such devices including plural pivot spring loaded deck hinges, as used in the automotive field, have been devised to pivot the door or deck so as to avoid marring of the adjacent body surface while providing concealment for the hinge device.

A non-analogous problem has long existed in the refrigerator and freezer field. The cabinet of the refrigerator or freezer requires peripheral sealing at the door face. Usually a hollow resilient gasket aifixed to door or facing is depressed by the closing movement of the door to form a peripheral insulating seal. When simple concealed pivots are used for hinging at the hinge side of the door, this causes abrasion or scufiing of the gasket or seal during opening and closing which results in shortened seal life which has not been avoided except by the use of outboard unconcealed hinges or complicated mechanism such as moving hinge plates concealed in either the cabinet or door to force the door outward at the hinge upon operation of the door latch mechanism, for example. Even using such complex devices the door pivots or swings to project beyond the plane established by the adjacent exterior side of the cabinet. In modern kitchens and utility rooms where appliances are mounted side by side, such door projecting hinge systems cause interference with the cabinets of adjacent appliances.

Collaterally, present day refrigerators, for example, employ a plurality of tiered-in-line compartments. To secure satisfactory hinging, coordinate alignment of door hinges is desirable.

Accordingly one of the objects of the present invention is to provide a novel hinge structure which avoids any substantial abrasion or scutfing of the peripheral door gasket in cabinets such as refrigerators and freezers.

Another object is to provide a simple concealed hinge which first moves the associated door outward and then permits pivoting of the door in a manner to prevent the extension of any part of the door beyond the plane established by the cabinet side.

Still another object is to provide an adjustment stop in hinges falling into the present category.

Still another object is to provide a concealed hinge and bracket structure to accomplish coordinated hinge action and alignment in cabinet door structures.

Still another object is to demonstrate the advantageous usage of a pintle of rectangular cross section to accomplish selected movement.

Other objects, including simplicity, rugged serviceability, and economy over existing devices will become increasingly apparent to those skilled in the art as the description proceeds.

In the drawing:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a refrigerator-like appliance having two tiered doors and showing, in phantom line, the upper, middle double and lower concealed hinge devices comprising the present invention.

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view of the double intermediate hinge indicating the cooperation between door and cabinet brackets. 7

FIGURE 3 is a top plan view in cross section taken on line III-III of FIGURE 1 between the cabinet and door brackets and illustrating the relative closed position in full line and the open position in phantom line.

FIGURE 4 is an exploded perspective view of the lower hinge structure showing the modified bracket form while employing the guide movement illustrated in FIG- URE 3 FIGURE 5 is an exploded perspective view of the upper singe structure and showing the modified form of door bracket and cabinet bracket while employing the guide movement structure as illustrated in FIGURE 3.

FIGURE 6 is a top plan fragmental view through a portion of the door edge adjacent the hinge devices and indicating by development the desirable avoidance of substantial seal scufl'lng.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION In general, a pair of cooperating hinge brackets or plates are provided, one of the brackets being fixed and the other of the brackets being movable with respect thereto. One of the brackets is provided with a recess or guideway. The other of the brackets is provided with a pair of fixedly spaced apart pivots which extend to both cooperatively engage the guideway. The guideway is so arranged so as to allow relative controlled sequential movement as between the movable bracket and the fixed bracket. Thus, in operation, the desired movement of an associated door, for example, is controlled by a double pivot action in which one piovtal element serves as a first pivot while the other pivot moves through a predetermined path. Then the other of the pivots stops to serve as a true second pivot and the first pivot moves in controlled curvilinear motion. This successive compound motion resulting from the present structure is highly desirable inasmuch as the brackets can be concealed and the motion of the door during opening follows a pattern so that the first opening action is pivotal and outward away from the facing, the first pivot being located farthest away from the gasket, and the second motion is away from the plane extended from the cabinet side so that during the balance of the opening of the door an adequate clearance from the extended cabinet line is established. The transition of movement is very' smooth in the operation of the hinges prepared in accord with the present invention and the brackets, as will be seen, adrnit of a wide variety of cabinet installations.

SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION Referring with particularity to FIGURE 1, a refrigerator 11 is shown having two doors 12 and 13. The upper door 12 is hung on the upper concealed hinge 14 and is supported by the intermediate concealed hinge 15. The intermediate hinge 15 serves also as the upper hinge for the lower door 13. The lower door 13 is supported at its base by the lower concealed hinge 16. The upper hinge 14 is best understood by reference to FIGURE 5.

The intermediate hinge 15 is best illustrated in FIGURE 2.' The lower hinge 16 is best shoum in FIGURE 4. It will be appreciated from FIGURE 1 that all of the hinges are insubstantial alignment and while a right hand hinge system is illustrated the descriptive reference is intended .to also apply to a left hand hinge arrangement on the doors of refrigerators, freezers, and like cabinets. In situations where asingle door is served only two of the hinges, for example hinges 16 and 14 are employed. It will also be appreciated that two hinges 14 would accomplish complete concealment.

. Referring to FIGURE 3, a section taken on line III-III f FIGURE 1, the mechanism of the hinges 14, 15 and 16 is revealed by reference to the hinge 15. As the description proceeds it will be apparent that the mechanism is substantially common to each of the particular hinges.

A fixed bracket 17, considered for example as a cabinet mounted bracket, is provided. The fixed bracket 17 is placed incooperating contact with a relatively movable bracket 18 fixed to the door 12, for example. At the planar interface between brackets 17 and 18 a guide and pivot relationship is established. A guideway 19 is pro- .vided inone of the brackets, for example movable bracket 18. Apair of pintles or pivots 20'and 21 extend from the bracket 17 into the guideway 19 defined by the mating portion of the bracket 13. The pintles 20 and 21 are fixed to the bracket 17 in fixed spaced apart relationshipt One of the pivots 20'is preferably cylindrical. The other of th'e'pivot's 21 is 'generally'and preferably substantially rectangular'in cross 'sectional configuration as shown.

The g'uideway 19 provides an arcuate path 22 which 'servcs'the 'pivot '21. At the end of the path 22, which is where the pivot 21 is initially inserted while the cabinet lar opening 23 where the pivot 21is located. A neck portion 24 of a width to accommodate the thickness of the pivo 21 connects the path 22 and the opening 23. Mergingwith the path 22 is a substantially straight recess zs 'epeein' into'the path 22. The recess 25 maybe straight and'of uniform w'idth'but is preferred to include a slight bend or bow 26 along its course. The purpose of the bend 'or bow 26 isto provide a thrust bearing bias onthe side of the pivot'20 depending upon the loadingof the door tomaintain a smooth bearing in transition to recess 25 an eliminate lost motion as the position of the pivot 20 varies in the recess 25. It will be appreciated fhatthe-presently described 'structure is reversible in the sense that the described fixed bracket 17 may be made movable andthe movable bracket 18 may be made stationary. The substantially straight guideway 25 merges with the narrower ourvin-gguideway 22 at substantially right angles therewith on the concave side of the guideway 22. 'In-theclosed position the pivot 21 is diagonally positioned across the substantially rectangular enlargement 23 of the guideway 22' at the end thereof as best shown in FIGURE 3. V

In the setting of a refrigerator cabinet 11, for example, which is arranged for right hand hinging, a variety of specific brackets may be employedv in accord with the refrigerator construction and the specific mounting problem'enco'unt'ered. Thebrackets are mounted on the interior of the case 11 adjacent the door facing. This arrangernen-t' is made so'as to avoid hinge contact with the door 12 is closed, is an enlarged substantially rectanguthe pintle 21 entering the guideway 22 in the recess 19. Thus the resulting hinge, using a rectangular pintle, is a structure accomplishing the eifect of a three pivot hinge. As described, the pivots 20 and 21 are preferably outboard of the position of gasket 27 in the door 12 or 13. With reference to FIGURE 3 the extreme open position of the door 12 is shown in phantom line. In FIGURE 6 the motion resulting from the described hinge mechanism is illustrated in relation to gasket 27 against the door facing of cabinet 11.

With reference to FIGURE 2 an exploded view of intermediate hinge 15 is shown. It will be seen that in addition to the door bracket 18, shown in FIGURE 3, a substantially similar door bracket 28 is provided. The fixed pintles 20 and 21 extend from both faces of the bracket 17 to cooperatively and simultaneously extend into the recess 19 of the bracket 18 and recess 19 of the bracket 28. The surface mounting flanges 29 of the bracket 17 define slotted openings 30 therethrough for adjustably fastening the bracket 17 to the door facing portion ofthe cabinetll as shown in FIGURE 3.

With reference to FIGURE 5 the hinge 14- comprises door bracket'18 having recess 19" therein substantially identical to guide way recess 19 as expressed in connection with the description of hinge 15. An upstanding plate 31 at substantially right angles to the guideway portion 32 is provided, the plate 31 having fastener openings therethrough. The plate 31 also carries a stop mounting tab 33. The tab 33 is slightly bent to transversely intersect a projection of the recess 19". A threaded collar 34 isfixed to the tab'33. The threaded collar 34 receives the stop adjusting screw 35. As the stop adjusting screw 35 is tbreaded into the collar 34 the impact head 36 extends into the pathway of the recess 19" to engage adjustably with the pintle 21' in its movement in the recess 19". The cabinet mounted bracket'17' in hinge 14 is channel shaped and provided with an arch 37 connecting the'wall flange 38 with the spaced apart pintle carriers 39. The pintle carriers 39 define positioning means for the rectangular pintle 21' and the cylindrical pivot or pintle 281- The pintle 21' comprises a bar of substantially rectangular cross section. The pintle 21 is provided with piercedportions 40 which are spaced inwardly from each of the ends of the pintle bar 21'. These pierced portions 40 rigidly locate the bar 21' so that'the end 41 of the bar 21'-extends above the upper of-the carriers 39 on assemblyto extend'into the guide way-recess 19" in thebracket 18. Then the pierced portions 40 are given a set forming the extending tab shoulders 42 as shown. The pintle '21 is retained in the aligned upright position by the mating openings 43 in the tabs 39. The cylindrical pintle or pivot 26' is passed through the recess19 of the bracket 18' and through the round holes 44 positioned spacedly apart from the opening 43 in the tabs 39. The upper opening '44 is of such size as to accommodate the major portion of the pintle 20', with the hardened shoulder 45 of the pintle 20 exgasket 27 (FIGURE 6) which gasket or seal 27 extends peripherally around the door facing. The door brackets are attached to the door 12 or 13 and are movable in accord with the'motion of the door. When the door 12 or 13 is closed, the pivot 20 is. located proximate to the merger of. recess 25 and path 22. The pivot'21is then positioned in the generally rectilinear opening 23.

The rectangular form of the pintle 21 has several advantages inasmuch'as'its slightly rounded edges provide two fulcrum points within the opening 23- as the shoulder defining opening23 contacts first one corner of the pintle 'cross section and subsequently another corner prior to tending above-andshoulder'ing on the tab 39. The upper end of the pintle 20' is iprovidedwith 'a head 46 which is slightly above the upper surface of bracket 18' by reason of the fact that the height of the shoulder 45 is in excess of the stock thickness of the bracket 18'. On assembly the lower'end of the cylindrical pivot 28' is'upset to form securing bead 47. In FIGURE 5 the parts are exploded in assembly relationship. Inasmuch as the guideway and pivot arrangement in hinge 14 is identical to the hinge and guideway of hinge 15, the alignment control is adjustably' established and as indicated adjustment of the stop screw 35 defines the desired limit of door swing.

"In'FIGURE 4 the lower hinge16 is illustrated. The guideway bracket 18" is'provided with recess 19" which isidenticaI with the guide-ways 19, 19', and 19" as previousyly' described. The recess guideway 19" is arranged to receive the pivots or pintles 20" and 21", the pivot 20" being an upstanding cylindrical extension and the pivot 21" being an upstanding pintle of substantially rectangular cross section. Both 20" and 21" pivots are spacedly apart from each other and fixed to the bracket 17". The bracket 17" is provided with a transverse mounting flange 48 which extends downwardly at right angles to the plate portion 49 of the bracket 17 Openings 50 are provided through the mounting flange 43 to accomplish fastening of the bracket 17" to the cabinet 11, as indicated in FIGURE 1. Similarly the guideway bracket 18" is provided with holes 51 for anchoring to the edge of door 13. The plate 52 comprising the bracket 18" is pierced and embossed to form a cylindrical passage 53 through which is axially passed a stop screw (not shown). Depending upon adjustment, the end of the stop screw extends into that portion of the recess 19" to limit the outward swing of the door 13. As remarked with regard to hinges 14 and the guideway and pintle arrangement on hinge 16 is substantially identical to the previously discussed hinge mechanism.

With reference to the development shown in FIGURE 6, door 12 is related to a typical refrigerator cabinet 11. The gasket 27 is seen as depressed against the cabinet facing 54. Upon initial opening of the door 12, the pintle 21 as described, for example, in FIGURE 3, serves as the first pivot. Its location outboard and an optimum distance away from the gasket 27 contact point assures that the gasket 27 will come away from the door With a minimum of semi (Development Sequence A). A second pivoting occurs using another corner of the rectangular cross sectioned pintle 21 (Development Sequence B). This is, of course, coordinated with the shift inmovement of the pivot 29 in the recess 26. Then the rectangular pintle 21 is positioned for travel along the portion 22 of recess 19. The pivot 20 is then limited in its travel bottoming at the end of the slot 26. Now the pintle pivot 21 serves as a guide in the curved portion of path 22 of recess 19, the door corner 55 traveling in guided manner inside of the imaginary plane extended outwardly from the side 56 of the cabinet 11 (Development Sequence C). As will be appreciated, the amount of full opening of the door 12 is limited by the stop means described in hinges 14 and 16. Thus, optimum conditions are achieved in a door concealed hinge to minimize scufi and wear on the gasket 27 while avoiding the extension of the door during hinging action beyond the line of the cabinet side.

Operation In operation the described hinges have proved easy to install in hollow construction doors and cabinets such as refrigerators and make possible new approaches in cabinet styling. The action is smooth and the transition from pivot to pivot is accomplished without substantial tactile appreciation of the movement shift. Adjustment, assembly, and maintenance of the hinges are kept simple and the life of the door gaskets are materially extended. Other modifications within the skill of the art will occur to those familiar with cabinet hinging work and such modifications are intended to be included herein limited only by the scope of the hereinafter appended claims.

I claim:

:1. In a double pivot hinge structure for accomplishing sequentially a pivoting and a moving action, the combination comprising: a first plate having two spaced apart extending pivots, at least one of said pivots having a substantially rectangular cross section; a second plate defining a merged straight line and curvilinear pathway into which said pivots guidably fit so as to provide for an initial pivoting action by said second plate on the rectangular of said pivots and guided relative lineal motion in respect of the other of said pivots, and subsequently a pivoting action on the said other of said pivots, with guided relative lineal movement of the rectangular of said pivots so as to cause a movement of the movable of said plates in respect to the fixed of said plates, which is partially pivotal and partially curvilinear.

2. In a double pivot hinge structure, the combination comprising: a fixed plate; a pair of pivots, one of said pivots being circular in cross section, the other of said pivots being substantially rectangular in cross section; a movable plate; a guideway provided in one of said plates comprising transverse merging arcuate and straight line slots, the larger and arcuate of said merging slots receiving said rectangular pivot for relative arcuate movement therein and having a uniform dimension substantially equal to one of the lesser dimensions of said rectangular pivot and at one end defining an enlarged opening of size to permit rotation of said rectangular pivot; said smaller and straight line of said merging slots guidably receiving said circular pivot 'for relative straight line movement therein; and bracket portions providing securing means extending from each of said plates.

3. In a cabinet hinge of the hidden type, the combination including: a door guide bracket having a pair of. merged guideways therethrough; a cylindrical pivot pin in one of the guideways established in said bracket; a substantially rectangular elongate guide bar in fixed relationship with respect to said pivot pin and in the other of said guideways; and a carrier bracket retaining said pin and said guide in fixed relationship permitting said guide bracket to rotate first about said guide bar in one of said guideways, the other of said guideways moving to a predetermined point in respect to said pin and then rotating said guide bracket about said pin in a predetermined arcuate path in accord with and relative to said guideway serving said guide bar.

4. A double pivot hinge comprising: a first cylindrical pintle and a second bar-like pintle having a substantially rectangular cross section in fixed spaced apart relationship to said first pintle; and a guideway structure cooperating with said pintles and defining openings selectively engaging said rectangular pintle for accomplishing two pivotal actions and a lineally moving action and selectively engaging said cylindrical pintle for a single pivotal action and lineal movement.

5. In a cabinet hinge of the hidden type, the combination including: a pair of spaced apart pivots, one of said pivots being substantially rectangular in cross section; a bracket carrying said pivots; a second bracket provided with interconnected pivot receiving recesses, said recesses including a straight line slot portion and a merging curvi linear slot portion of such relation to admit of a first pivotal action on said rectangular pivot with lineal movement of said other pivot in relation to said straight line slot portion to a predetermined point in said straight line portion whereupon said rectangular pivot is relatively moveable arcuately in said curvilinear slot portion and said other pivot acts as a true pivot.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

5. IN A CABINET HINGE OF THE HIDDEN TYPE, THE COMBINATION INCLUDING: A PAIR OF SPACED APART PIVOTS, ONE OF SAID PIVOTS BEING SUBSTANTIALLY RECTANGULAR IN CROSS SECTION; A BRACKET CARRYING SAID PIVOTS; A SECOND BRACKET PROVIDED WITH INTERCONNECTED PIVOT RECEIVING RECESSES, SAID RECESSES INCLUDING A STRAIGHT LINE SLOT PORTION AND A MERGING CURVILINEAR SLOT PORTION OF SUCH RELATION TO ADMIT OF A FIRST PIVOTAL ACTION ON SAID RECTANGULAR PIVOT WITH LINEAL MOVEMENT OF SAID OTHER PIVOT IN RELATION TO SAID STRAIGHT LINE SLOT PORTION TO A PREDETERMINED POINT IN SAID STRAIGHT LINE PORTION WHEREUPON SAID RECTANGULAR PIVOT IS RELATIVELY MOVEABLE ARCUATELY IN SAID CURVILINEAR SLOT PORTION AND SAID OTHER PIVOT ACTS AS A TRUE PIVOT. 